The 2017 video game Fortnite popularity continues to grow. However, it seems as it gains popularity, it also faces such controversies such as the dance lawsuit filed by Brooklyn rapper 2 Milly, former "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" star Alfonso Ribeiro, and Instagram's "Backpack Kid." Both celebrities filed lawsuits against Epic this month.
In the lawsuits filed by two celebrities, the developer Epic Games copied each of their trademark dance moves, in which added in their successful gameplay Fortnite as an animation, and sold them to millions of players, without their permission. However, this issue has become a debate whether you can copyright or not a dance.
Epic Games earned $455 million on iOS in 2018. This means the company earns roughly $1.6 million every day since it launched on the Apple store in March 2018. In December 2018, Epic Games' earned $69 million through its fan-favorite battle royale game, Fortnite, which was downloaded 5.2 million times, according to GameSpot.
Although it established large fan-base, the company has been facing challenges. In July 2018, Chance the Rapper took to Twitter to call "Fortnite" out for the dance moves added in the game. His tweet caught the attention of many internet users. It sparked debate, but fade away quickly.
Fortnite should put the actual rap songs behind the dances that make so much money as Emotes. Black creatives created and popularized these dances but never monetized them. Imagine the money people are spending on these Emotes being shared with the artists that made them — Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) July 13, 2018
In the same year, The "Scurbs" actor Donald Faison brought the same issue again. He called out the company for using Turk's "Poison" dance in the game, according to Variety.
Earlier this month, Terrence "2 Milly" Ferguson filed a lawsuit against Epic Games for using and selling his "Milly Rock" dance in the game without permission. Less than a week later, Ribeiro and Anita Redd, parents of Russell "Backpack Kid" Horning, filed two more suits. The three lawsuits are asking for a ruling to block Epic Games from using the dance moves, some amount of money earned off the moves, unspecified punitive damages, and attorney's fees.
Apart from these lawsuits, Fortnite is accused of being unsafe when it comes to privacy. A group of researcher found out that the security feature of the game is weak when they conducted an experiment. They sent a message to their victim over social media including a malicious link. Once clicked the link clicked, the user's Fortnite authentication token, a code that confirms a user is logged in, could be captured by the attacker even he has no information about their username or password.
"Fortnite is one of the most popular games played mainly by kids. These flaws provided the ability for a massive invasion of privacy," said Oded Vanunu, head of products vulnerability research for Check Point. His group found they could access target accounts.
Fortnite's in-game currency V-Bucks has been reported being used for laundering money on the dark web. Hackers used stolen credit card details to be able to buy V-Bucks from the official store of Fornite. This has been discovered by The Independent.
